Here at GCL we continually train and develop our team in the key aspects of demand generation. In this blog post we demonstrate what our agents are taught on how to get past even the toughest gatekeeper when calling prospects.
First things first, it’s all about your mind set. If you see the gatekeeper as an obstacle you have already lost. So what do you do?
The way to look at it is how do you get the Gatekeeper on your side? .
The key ingredient is confidence – when speaking with the gatekeeper always speak confidently, take control of the conversation, be friendly and enthusiastic, it goes a long way.
With great confidence comes, “the air of positive expectation”. Right, so you’ve got through to a gatekeeper your confident and ask directly for “Joe Blogs”, the gatekeeper asks “whose calling?” throw a sigh in “its Alice”. Speak as though you expect the Gatekeeper to put you through, almost as if you own the place.
Gatekeepers are phone ninjas they are put in place to filter calls. The best tactic to keep these ninjas at bay? Turn them into your allies. Remember they have tough jobs, so treat them with respect, humour and compassion.
Get the gatekeeper to hold the torch for you. OK this is not the Olympics but by getting an informed influential gatekeeper to buy into your solution and present it to the decision maker as their own it will carry more weight than going direct to the decision maker yourself.
Show recognition – gatekeepers are your fuel. They hold vital information, through them you learn about the Decision Maker, the department, recent trends and company plans.
Strive to make an impression – Show some personality, humour and creativity to stand apart from the hundreds of other marketing calls they get.
Demonstrate past history with the Decision Maker – “I’m returning his/her call”. This will upgrade the calls importance.
Save repeatedly explaining yourself by asking for direct dials – this will give you a much better chance of getting through to the Decision Maker the next time.
These are just some of the methods you can use to get the gatekeeper on your side and as with anything it gets easier and more natural with practice.
